Fashion (and Shoes) Reaches New Heights

Shoes have not been kind to Victoria Beckham. Infamous for her love of high fashion, her shoe fetish has finally come back to kick her in the ass. Worried that she’d be unable to walk by 40, and all because of her teetering heels, Mrs. Beckham has recently considered a bunionectomy, which, yes, is every bit as unpleasant as it sounds.

By Nat

Heels have always been subject to fashion. They’ve been high, they’ve been low, they’ve been flat, wedged, kitten-ed and now: supersized. Of the many things that have eluded me (Furbies? What were we thinking?), this is one of them. Suffering from osteoarthritis, sciatica, hammertoe and Haglund’s deformity hardly qualifies as my idea of fun. So why? Why do we fall for the pretty shoe with the killer heel?

As always, scientists have the answer. There’s the standard “taller girls equals better breeding” theory, which claims that taller women are most appealing to the opposite sex. Then, there’s the “long legs equal good breeding potential” idea. And of course, the perfectly reasonable explanation that girls are simply trying to bridge the girl-guy height gap. While it’s true killer heels (and by that I mean cute and high) can boost confidence and attract the boys, they’re named killer for a reason.

I’ve already mentioned some of the conditions associated with long term heel abuse, and there’s more bad news to come: It’s irreversible. And progressive. So, as you get older, it gets worse. And worse. And while I love my shoes (girl-shoes, shoes-gir – like that’s a hard relationship to understand), I’d choose perfectly fine feet every time.

However, labels like Jimmy Choo and Gucci don’t seem to agree with me. Jimmy Choo’s website even considers a low heel as less than 2.5 inches and a high heel anything over 3.5, which makes me wonder: HOW DOES ANYBODY WALK IN THEM? And how can we trust a man – who never has to walk in our shoes, literally – to dictate what we will wear? These designers set the standard for fashion, so they are doing us all a disservice by designing stilletos that look like this.

Shoes need to shrink. Fast. The majority of shoes gracing shop shelves today are shoes on steroids. It shouldn’t be so hard to find shoes that are comfortable, cute and non-foot wrecking, but it is! We need to start a revolution for lower heels, or more comfortable options.

Our feet and health are at stake.